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In the middle decades of the twentieth century, a curious phenomenon took hold across the world. In the cafés of Paris, the billboards of Rio, and the factories of Moscow, a new kind of modernity arrived—one that spoke with an American accent. The products were familiar enough: a bottle of Coca-Cola, a film from Hollywood, a gleaming automobile made on Ford’s assembly line. But what they sold went far beyond their physical form. They promised a way of life. From the 1920s to the end of the Cold War, America exported not only goods but values: efficiency, freedom, abundance, and…